More Rome II ramblings

Thoughts on Rome II after being Top50, now in Top100 because I actually go to work.

• All archer units are pretty weak in a game where the heaviest of infantry have strong armor, or formations that increases armor.  Not only that, but the units move fast and the range of most missile troops are 125.
• Only really heavy missile based armies have much effect, but a lot of the MP maps have random weather conditions and terrain that reduces their effectiveness (such as fog, rain, heavy brush, dense trees).
• The same applies here for artillery units:  Half of the maps do not favor the use of artillery so they can be a huge points sink.  All you have to do is look at the map, see what you random into, what kind of terrain you'll be fighting in, and adjust accordingly.
• Elite infantry are superior to other infantry:  They have superior stats, strong abilities, resilient to missile troops, are not unit capped, and have the same amount of bodies as a regular unit.  There's no reason to take any other unit.  Just form a line with Royal Spartans, Oathsworn and Praetorian Guard.
• Foot Companion are kind of ridiculous; they hands down beat every unit in the game from the front.  What's their counter?  Flank and rear charges once the pikes themselves have been engaged.  What counters that?  Just a little bit of micro and a IQ over 45.
• Lancer units are pretty trash overall.  Their pitiful melee defense, relatively low armor overall, and their overall impact on the battlefield is not worth their cost.  They will charge into other units, do damage sure, but other units with above average melee defense and armor will just swing back and make up for the damage done.  Once you're in combat, you also can't pull out; you'll lose half of your guys just trying to run out of combat.
• Also, all cavalry run at the same speed from what I've noticed.  The pricing of the Roman units are a joke.  Why would you ever take Praetorians over Praetorian Guard?  Or Evocati Cohort vs. Armored Legionaries?
• So what do we have here?  A game of rock paper scissors where none of it really matters.  If Archers are paper, they sure the hell don't kill the rocks which are all the heavy elite infantry.  If Scissors are the Lancers, then these must be safety scissors because they don't do jack.  And then we have Foot Companions, which might as well be a shotgun assuming you're terrible.

Some of best units in the game so far from what I've noticed:
Foot Companions, Hellenic Royal Guard, Praetorian Guard, Oathsworn, Swordmasters, Royal Spartans, Noble Horse, Aspis Companion Cavalry, Praetorian Cavalry

Playing Rome II

Royal Spartans!

Summer's been pretty dry for in terms of minis, but I have been playing a lot of computer games.  Right now, I'm playing Total War: Rome 2 and I'm top50 on the leaderboards.  The game's pretty buggy right now and there's some issues to be addressed, but I just wanted to drop a line and let you guys know what I'm up to.

As I play more, I'll blog more and more about it.

Bought into Nomads for Infinity

A pretty nice looking army.

A lot of Infinity players in my area lately, so I figure why not.  I like the look of the models the most out of all the factions and I think that's enough to start playing the game.  This is the third time or so I've looked over the game rules in the last couple of years so why not, let's write a list.

 Nomads | 10 models

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 Reverend Custodier Lieutenant (38|0.5)

 Intruder HMG (44|1.5)

 Intruder Sniper (52|1.5)

 Prowler Spitfire (37|2)

 Zero Minelayer (19|0.5)

 Tomcat Engineer (22|0)

 Tomcat Doctor (22|0)

 Riot Grrl Multi (37|0)

 Wildcat BS (19|0)

 Alguacil Combi (10|0)

________________________________________________________

300/300 points | 6/6 swc

open with Aleph Toolbox  : direct link

What you see here are various tidbits of models I bought to make what I think will be a solid list.  The Reverend Custodier is my Lt. and hacker.  I'm hoping the extra order will help me with hacking and the ODD will give me a little extra protection.  The free Lt. without any SWC is also very welcome.  My main damage dealers come from my Intruders with their MV2, CH and solid BS of 13.  One carries the HMG, the other the Sniper and together with my Spitfire Prowler, they'll be the main damage dealers.  The Zero Minelayer will make his way around the map dropping mines and helping me setup kill lanes while the Tomcats drop in to kill enemy cheerleader/hiding units.  The Riot Grrl is there with her Multi simply because I think her model is cool, and I guess PH13 + Hyper-Dynamics Lv.1 helps too.  Wildcat with the Boarding Shotgun also gives me a Deployable Repeater, and the Algucail with the Combi-Rifle just helps out with maxing out my orders.

There you go, 300/300 with full SWC.  Not a bad list I'd say so myself!

Wargame: AirLand Battle

AirLand nerding!

Been playing a lot of this lately.  A LOT.
Sorry for the lack of posts, but I've been out of a minis funk because this game is so damn awesome.

Here's what I wrote about it on my Steam Review:
One of the best top-down war simulation games I've ever played. For RTS players, there is minimal micro and macro. The depth of this game lies in how well you can negotiate battle tactics and execute the overall strategy on any given map. There is a much larger emphasis on unit choices, deployment, execution of battle tactics and smart use of attrition-based warfare. The game takes place during the height of the Cold War and so all the tactics are based on actual modern warfare. Infantry units dominate city battles, tanks rip apart APCs and aircraft play a dominant role on the battlefield. With a ton of historically-accurate units to choose from, this game is a must-have, must-play for any modern war enthusiast. I strongly recommend it.

Three Dark Eldar/Eldar lists up for review!

I'm more Archon than Farseer.

Alright guys, it's your turn to review my lists.  I know I show off a lot of lists all the time and talk about them, but I think it's time for you guys to pick one of my lists.  I'll present three and give you guys a decent breakdown of what they have.

*Allied force

First list
1849
17 kp

HQ:
Farseer (JB, Spear, Mantle) = 160
Succubus (VB) = 70*

TROOPS:
5x Dire Avengers (WS/Holo/Scatter/SC) = 210
5x Dire Avengers (WS/Holo/Scatter/SC) = 210
5x Warriors (Venom NS/SC, Blaster) = 135*
5x Jetbikes (SC) = 95
4x Jetbikes (SC) = 78

ELITE:
3x Trueborn (Venom NS/SC, 3x Blasters) = 156*

FA:
Crimson Hunter Exarch = 180

HEAVY:
Fire Prism (Holofields, SS) = 150
Fire Prism (Holofields, SS) = 150
Night Spinner (Holofields, SS) = 140
Ravager (NS) = 115*

Alpha Potential: 8x TL Scatters, 6x TL Shurikens (or 2d6 S7 Ignore Cover), 24x Poison shots, 2x S9 AP1 Lances, S8 Monofilament blast, 3x Dark Lances

Main Strength of list: 5x AV12 Grav-Tanks with Holofields, flexible shooting methods.

Main Weakness of list: Lack of scoring bodies.

My competitive Eldar bucket

Scream at things.

So here's what I'm thinking:

Competitive bucket:
Farseers - Great. Should outright be in every list, or 90% of lists not focusing on specifically designed lists such as Wraith armies.  Double Guide is just fantastic and vastly improves the shooting output of your army.  When you need every shot to count, do not settle for anything less.  Plus you get the awesomeness that is Divination:  Giving you possible 4+ ward on Wraithknights, Scrier's Gaze, and the ability to combine Misfortune with Doom.

Avatar of Khaine - Works in the right list, mostly footslogging ones holding and offering target saturation. If you're running plenty of big units, Wraithguard, WK and WLs, then the Avatar is just another piece of the puzzle.  These guys shouldn't be too expensive with Fast Shot and possibly +1S for S7.

Eldrad - Works in the above said army and will continue to do so. Footslog is in a pretty good place right now minus the odd-ball AP2 template weapons. This is why I generally feel that footslog outright might not be the best, but mech + foot will be stronger. You are better able to conserve units that matter (scoring) while fielding units that someone like Tau can't really deal with (Wraithknights).  He's a footslogging champ because you get a very efficient Farseer that comes with all the bells and whistles plus a few more.

Autarch - Good.  His Strategy clause and reserve manipulation is the reason why he deserves to be in lists. When he is in a list, he needs to be cheap. Either hopping around with Warp Spiders, hanging around with Singing Spears, or tagging along with Jetbikes. Keep him cheap, for real.

Spiritseer - Better than Warlocks IMO, better leadership, larger array of spells, can join any unit, just an overall stronger pick than the Warlock. Wraithsight is just nice to have but the real boon is taking T6 3+ units as troops.

Warlock - Works in the right list, but is limited in where he can truly perform. His lack of spells worries me, his Ld.8 as well, but default Conceal gives him a spot in weapon teams, Guardians, Jetbikes, so if you're running those then he can see a spot. Otherwise, I prefer the stronger option of a Farseer with double guide, or the flexibility of a Spiritseer.

GDS: Translating fantasy into reality

Huskblades are well-designed.

To follow up on the previous article, I want to give you guys a first hand look on how fluff translates to any given ruleset.  I'll be going over my actual suggestions later, so stay tuned for that.  For now, lets look at how I go about translating fantasy into a playable ruleset.

• The designer has the fantasy:  They make up the fluff and fantasizes on what is actually cool.  It plays out with stunning visuals and sound effects in his head, and this is when he'll pitch out ideas like.. wouldn't this be cool?!  E.g. D-Cannons briefly opens up a rift into the warp.
• Now he has a pretty good idea of the type of item he wants to implement (keep in mind I say item and this can be unit, weapon, actual item, or whatever) and talks with other designers to see if they share his vision.  They gather around in a room and throw ideas at each other.  There is a lot of "wouldn't this be cool if..", and "what you think about this?"
• The designer translates the ruleset based on the game system.  How does the D-Cannon in his mind play out on the table-top?  How does it work and what does it do exactly?  He has the vision of the weapon in his head, but he goes over the ruleset that exists in the game and translates it to the table top.  e.g. He constantly asks himself:  How would the devastating effects of the warp have on infantry models?  What does it do to vehicles?  Flesh targets need to wound right?  Or should it auto-wound?  How does it hit?  Does it have a template?  He uses the ruleset that already exists to generate a profile suitable for the item he's generating:  A weapon will follow the Strength, AP, Type profile that exists in 40K whereas a new Hero would have rough WS, S, T..characteristics.
• The designer looks over the rules he has written and evaluates the consistency of his work.  Is this a completely new ability he has created or are there other ones like it in the existing ruleset?  If it's a Lance weapon, how does it differ in design and functionality to another weapon of its type?  E.g. How does this D-Cannon compare vs. other anti-infantry weapons in the game?  How does it compare as a anti-tank weapon?  Does it share similar properties of a lesser or greater weapon?  E.g. a Flamer vs. Heavy Flamer, both should have flamer templates.
• All during this time, there's several design meetings going around to see if this is still plausible and solid.  Sometimes he would talk to the sculptor or production to see if this new weapon (pretend we're doing he D-Cannon) needs a new mold/model.  Which existing models would this be used on?  Are there any technical limitations that can prevent this idea from coming to fruition.  Keep in mind that these steps are not finite, all these steps go on constantly in the back of the designer's mind.  Sometimes the idea is even abandoned because a better idea comes along.  Personally, I'm always thinking about how the piece translates from the fluff onto the ruleset, how consistent is it, and how well it will play once it's released.
• After the designer is confident about his test piece, he looks at the balance of the item compared to everything else (internal and external).  How does this new item compare with the rest of the book?  How does this weapon balance out with the other weapons in the book he's writing.  Are there any glaring balance concerns that need to be addressed?  This is the time where he internally balances the piece with the rest of the elements of his book (internal balance), and makes SLIGHT changes with respect to external balance (how does it compare vs. other armies).
• The reason why external balance was put on the backburner is because this is the playtesting and QA phase.  Playtesters get their hands on the piece and gives it a whirl.  They right feedback to the developers and they make changes to the internal and external workings of the item at hand.  This can take days, weeks, months, but after several revisions and multiple playtesting sessions with these different revisions, the designer is happy about his work.  It is now ready to ship.

Thanks for reading.